HANGZHOU, July 12 -- Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. submittedan updated initial public offering prospectus to the U.S. Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC) on Saturday morning (Beijing time) featuring an expanded board ofdirectors.
The document showed that the board of directors of the future listed company will includetwo extra members nominated by the Alibaba partnership.
The change will ensure the Alibaba partnership has majority control of the board bynominating six of the 11 members.
The previous filing revealed four members of the board of directors to be from the Alibabapartnership, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
The updated prospectus also gave a detailed explanation of the split of Alipay from Alibabain 2011.
To meet new regulations issued by the Chinese government at that time, the split turnedAlipay into a Chinese company and thus avoided a possible delay in acquisition of therelevant business license as well as the corresponding negative impact on the developmentof China's online transactions and Alipay.
The document also showed that Alibaba invested in China's top soccer club, GuangzhouEvergrande, in July with 1.2 billion yuan (about 192 million U.S. dollars) for 50 percent ofEvergrande's shares.
Sources said Alibaba will make its IPO debut in the U.S. as early as August.
